Category Archives: Brock’s Gap

Birmingham Historical Society, Brock’s Gap, Historic Preservation, Hoover, Meetings, Parks & Recreation, Planning, Engineering, and Permits, Shades Creek, Shades Crest Road

Town Hall Meetings for Hoover Parks’ Planning are THIS WEEK

Want some input into the future of Hoover’s Greenways and Blueways? Do you love Lover’s Leap and Tip Top Grill? The town hall meetings are THIS WEEK! See schedule below and read the article in the Hoover Sun:

Monday, May 8: Shades Crest Baptist Church

Tuesday, May 9: Spain Park High School Library

Thursday, May 11: Finley Center at Hoover Metropolitan Complex

Tuesday, May 16: Virtual town hall meeting at futurehoover.com

Each meeting will be from 5 to 7 p.m. The in-person meetings will be set up as a walk-through interactive exhibit, with displays giving information about the various parts of the plan and opportunities to provide feedback on the displays.

Representatives from the city will be on site as well to answer questions, talk about the plan and have conversations with people about what they would like to see regarding the focus topics, said Mindy Wyatt, a strategic analyst for the city who is serving as the project manager for the plan.

Friends of Shades Mountain (FOSM), working with the Hoover Historical Society, are promoting the creation of a Bluff Park Preserve on Shades Mountain.

Birmingham Historical Society, Brock’s Gap, Hoover, Parks & Recreation, Planning, Engineering, and Permits, Shades Creek, Shades Crest Road, shades mountain

Hoover wants your input on Green Spaces

Hoover is seeking the public’s input on a long-term plan for parks, public spaces, greenways, trails, and blue ways. Lots of plans are being explored including the one prepared by the Birmingham Historical Society’s Marjorie White and Birgit Kibelka along the historic Ross Bridge property (see below). Officials are considering 32 public places, and 20 miles of frontage on the Cahaba River.

Make your voice be heard! Improve your community by participating in this online survey and attending the May meetings.

Click HERE for Online Survey and Meeting Schedule

Click HERE for pdf printable map with links of proposed sites along historic Brock’s Gap and Ross Creek Culvert

Audubon Society, Birmingham Historical Society, Birmingham Landmarks, Brock’s Gap, Historic Preservation, Hoover, Parks & Recreation, Red Mountain, Red Mountain Park, Research, Shades Creek, Shades Crest Road, shades mountain

Help Save Shades Mountain with the SOUND of MUSIC!

Friends of Shades Mountain
are sponsoring a Benefit Concert
at Wild Roast Cafe in Bluff Park,
featuring great live folk, mountain,
and classical guitar music,
as well as original songs
by the President of the Birmingham Music Club

Sunday, September 11th, 6:00PM

Click image to download & print pdf invitation

The Birmingham Historical Society continues to research the historic importance of Shades Mountain and Shades Creek to our community with recent attention focused on Brock’s Gap, and the publication of Shades Creek–Flowing Through Time. But the Friends of Shades Mountain also want to preserve it for the benefits it provides all of us NOW including:

  • The forest protects homeowners below from erosion, mudslides and damaging storm water runoff.
  • It helps keep the water and air in the county clean.
  • By providing visual screening, the forest enhances property values in the valley below and the ridge above the mountain.
  • It provides habitat for many plant and animal species, some rarely seen in other parts of the county and state.
  • It is an aesthetic value in itself, providing a lush green landscape that cools the eye of everyone coming around, over and under its forest canopy.
  • It helps protect Shades Creek, already imperiled by previous development.
  • The forests along this mountain help to keep homes cooler by reducing the effects of hot, humid summer days. In the winter, the forest provides wind brakes that cut heating costs.
  • The forest cover saves the county an estimated $1,500,000 per year by reducing air pollution and storm water runoff.

You can HELP by buying tickets or donating if you can’t attend.

Birmingham Historical Society, Birmingham Landmarks, Brock’s Gap, Research

Brock’s Gap as a Pedestrian Pathway per Hoover Developer

Click HERE for full article

The mission of the Birmingham Historical Society includes supporting the preservation of historic landmarks and educating the community about their significance. This often requires field study, mapping, photography, and fact checking before informing owners and developers about their property’s history.

Many times, owners are initially unaware of the historic significance of their property, but once it’s pointed out, they begin to see the historic landmarks on their property as amenities that not only need to be preserved but that can also enhance its marketability .

As posted in The Hoover Sun by Jon Anderson on November 25, 2021, Developer and Signature Homes President, Jonathon Belcher, soon realized how working around Brock’s Gap could enhance any future development as he states:

“… (he) wants to use the Brock’s Gap cut as a pedestrian pathway to help connect Ross Bridge and the Everlee community to 10 miles of mountain bike trails his company built in Trace Crossings, and eventually to historic coke ovens across the Cahaba River in Helena.”

“For us, that old railbed will serve as a great connector trail that’s already built, so we like having that there,” he said. “It enhances the communities we create.”

Completed 150 years ago, the beautiful, forested railbed at Brock’s Gap was the last and most laborious stretch of the South and North Alabama Railroad that finally connected Montgomery to the mineral region of central Alabama. With this important link finally in place, the city of Birmingham was founded a month later, on December 19th, 1871. For more photos and information, please click here and scroll to read all articles related to this issue (including this one).

And a year later, the final link of South & North —from Birmingham to Decatur — created the first railway linking the north and the south in the United States.

Thanks largely to the efforts of Birmingham Historical Society trustees, Marjorie White and Birgit Kibelka, the importance of Brock’s Gap has been brought to the attention of not only the community, but also to the developers and city leaders who will determine its future. For the Birmingham Historical Society, that is their stated mission, accomplished.

Brock’s Gap, Railroads

CBS 42 News Brings Attention to Brock’s Gap Concerns

View CBS video report by selecting image above

An interstate exchange is causing concern to Birmingham Historical Society members because of its impact upon the historic Brock’s Gap. A major mining area and a landmark of Birmingham’s founding, the nineteenth century site is currently a unique educational resource as well as a beautiful green space and nature trail. The hope is that interstate developers will consider not only traffic concerns but also the historic value of this site in their planning. For more information, please refer to this post.

Autumn Bracey with CBS News covers the story, interviewing Hoover Councilman, John Lyda, and Birmingham Historical Society Director, Marjorie White.